New name, same purpose, tighter focus

Well, hello there! How have you been? Good? It's been a minute, I know. Sorry about that, it's entirely my fault. I owe you an explanation.

Same purpose

I started this newsletter to help CEOs & execs (including GCs) in ambitious growing businesses, by providing actionable tips and suggestions on how to get more from legal stuff. 

I did it because I genuinely believe it's possible for businesses to get much more effective legal results, in less time and for less money, because, well, that's what I've been able to do in my 18+ years as a GC. But, to be frank, I also think there's a lot of rubbish, self-interested legal advice out there, all based around reacting and fighting like mad to legal situations when they come up. (Which coincidentally is an approach that works really well for people billing by the hour...) 

Wanting to help your audience doesn't automatically mean you actually are helping them, though. And, later than I should have, I realised a key flaw in what, until now, has been called 'The Collaborative Legal Way'. 

New Name

As the name suggests, The Collaborative Legal Way was all about how businesses could be collaborative in legal stuff. Making the law collaborative, not combative, is the one change I'd love to make to the legal industry. And putting relationships first, and being collaborative rather than combative, is a fundamental part of how I do what I do. 

But it is by no means the whole of what I do. In fact, its not even the most important part. It is not what I'm really about. And, if I really want to help CEOs and execs (including GCs) in ambitious growing businesses, those tips and suggestions are more valuable if they're about what I do, rather than just something I believe. 

I help businesses land their long-term plans. I do that by helping them pro-actively look ahead, identify what legal and compliance issues are coming their way, and then do what's needed to plot the safest, fastest course through the legal minefield. That's what I really love doing. That's what gets me out of bed. That's how I make the biggest difference I can to the businesses I'm lucky enough to work with.

So its time to start talking about that. That's what the tips and suggestions in this newsletter will relate to going forward. And that's why it's now called Clear Course.

Tighter focus

It's easy to think that the legal stuff that might derail your plan is unpredictable and comes from out of nowhere. But all legal stuff is started by a person. Which means its thought up by that person. Which means you can think of it too. Which means that it's predictable, and that it can be foreseen and evaded. Clear Course will show you how. 

Going forward, each edition of Clear Course will have two things:

A Driver: one thing you can implement to build your confidence in your plan; and

A Sleeper: one thing to wake up to before it wakes you up, so you protect your plan

As the newsletters build on each other, you'll gain greater and greater confidence that your business will land its plan. And being collaborative and putting relationships first will still form part of that, because that's absolutely crucial to giving you that confidence. But being collaborative will only be a sub-text, not the headline nor the over-arching theme.

So welcome to Clear Course: proactive legal intelligence for CEOs who intend to land their plan. Hopefully, this should be more relevant to you than before. There's only one way to find out...

Any question, complaints, thoughts, do please let me have them

Andrew

PS: as said, I still think that knowing how to put relationships first in legal stuff is hugely beneficial to businesses. So beneficial, in fact, that I do still plan to finish the book that I was using the newsletter to help me write. 

If you'd only subscribed specifically for the 'how to be collaborative in your legal' stuff, I do need some volunteers to help me flesh out, finish and proof read that book. If you'd be up for being an 'accountability buddy' for me on this, do let me know.